Palm Coast man struck by lightning says ‘I’m not supposed to be alive’

Saturday

Jul 26, 2014 at 10:32 PM

By Tony Holttony.holt@news-jrnl.com

DAYTONA BEACH — Tahgier Williams had never seen light fill the air like it did last Sunday. Everything was hidden behind a blanket of white.He didn’t move from his seat because in the split second he had to form a thought in his head, he realized getting out of the way of a lightning bolt was as impossible as jumping out of the path of a moving bullet.“I just remember the sky lighting up in a way that I’d never seen,” Williams said Friday from a hospital bed.Williams, 19, survived a lightning strike. The former high school football player and wrestler remains in a hospital room wondering how long it will be before his strength returns.Paramedics had to resuscitate him while en route from Palm Coast to Halifax Health Medical Center. Doctors and nurses have marveled at the fact Williams didn’t die, his relatives said.A case manager visited him in his room Friday morning, but the length of Williams’ hospital stay remains unclear. He said he was told he could stay for another two days or up to two weeks — and that’s only if he doesn’t suffer any medical setbacks.Williams’ aunt, April Williams, said the medical staffers don’t get many patients who need to be treated for lightning-related injuries. They’re learning new recovery facts just like everyone else, she said.“His whole body is in pain,” Williams said of her nephew. “His nerves are completely on edge. He was jolted.”Tahgier Williams has had episodes where he has lost feeling in his legs. There also have been moments of lost vision and hearing. After five or 10 minutes, his senses return, but each time it has unnerved him. He hasn’t lost either his sight or hearing since Thursday, he said. He’s hoping that’s a sign of sustained improvement.Williams was intubated for almost two days. He told his aunt after the tube was removed that he didn’t want to close his eyes. He told her he was afraid if he fell asleep, he wouldn’t wake up.Less than an hour before sundown on July 20, it was as if Williams had been zapped with a surge of energy — he ripped off his shirt, talked fast, walked fast, unhooked three propane tanks and barked at his mother to go inside because a storm was brewing.Amid the confusion, no one realized Williams had been struck by lightning. He was sitting in a chair in a tent in his grandmother’s backyard around 7:30 p.m. when lightning ripped through the tent and entered through his chest.Moments before the thunder crack, Williams and his uncle observed the misty rain and wondered whether it would pass soon or if it was a prelude to a stronger storm. Lightning was on the horizon, but it seemed to be at a safe distance. Williams remembered hearing his uncle complain about how the weather was disrupting the family reunion. Relatives from Jamaica, Canada and the United Kingdom had converged on Palm Coast for a celebration and all of them were at Williams’ grandmother’s house on Bracken Lane in Palm Coast for a cookout.Without warning came the engulfing white light. Small bolts of electricity were spraying in various directions underneath the tent. Williams’ mother, who was cooking under the tent, somehow avoided being struck herself.That was when Williams stood up from his chair, unaware of what had just happened, and took off his shirt.He did so because his body felt hot, he said. Then he disconnected the propane tanks and told his mother it wasn’t safe to be outside.Seconds later, his body started to break down. His eyes, ears, mouth and legs stopped working. The 320-pound teen had to be helped into the house by his mother and cousin. The 30 or so people inside the house also felt the lightning strike. Some of them had hit the floor. The commotion cranked up a notch when they saw Williams lying and shaking on the floor. That’s when someone called 9-1-1.Williams was rushed to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach but before he got there, the ambulance pulled to the side of Interstate 95, said his mother, Sheree Morgan.Williams’ heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated. The paramedic behind the wheel had to stop driving and help the other emergency responders to save Williams’ life, Morgan said.Williams’ mother was told her son was being taken to Florida Hospital Flagler, which is 8 miles from where Williams was struck. When paramedics realized the extent of Williams’ injuries, they decided to take him to the trauma center at Halifax, which was about 30 miles away.Morgan and another relative raced to the local hospital. Someone called her to tell her that her son was going to Halifax, so she headed south along I-95. She made it to the hospital several minutes before her son arrived.The relative Morgan was with had a military medical background. He saw Williams being brought into the hospital and noticed the clothes he had been wearing when he was loaded into the ambulance were off of him, indicating paramedics had to use a defibrillator and other means to safe his life.“They had to work on him,” said Morgan, whose eyes started to moisten.“My son is absolutely blessed,” she continued. “I know that God saved him. Believers and nonbelievers need to know that. It was a miracle.”Williams’ hands are still swollen. He is using a hand exerciser to improve his grip. His energy level is low and his appetite is almost nonexistent. He only took a few bites of his breakfast Friday. Food doesn’t have any taste, he said.He needs a walker to get from his bed to the bathroom and it takes him several minutes. The bottoms of his feet remain sore.Williams has always been a churchgoer, but during the past few days he’s been even more demonstrative about his faith — sometimes bowing his head in prayer, said his aunt.Around the clock, someone is at his bedside. His family, he said, has helped lift his spirits.“I’m not supposed to be alive,” he said. “It’s really incredible.”

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